


Sleepless

by LauraAnneB



Series: The Jenny and The Ox AU [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 17:49:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20213809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LauraAnneB/pseuds/LauraAnneB
Summary: The Inquisitor comforts her girlfriend Sera after they enter the Fade at Adamant. A Jenny and the Ox AU. For the 2019 DA Prompt Exchange Fill-a-Thon.





	Sleepless

It’s the first night of their journey back from Adamant. Sera is not going to go to sleep.

She pinches herself hard each time her eyelids start closing without her say-so. When that stops working, she throws on clothes and leaves her tent. (She’s not sleeping in Adder’s tent, though her lover offered. Adder’s so big, so strong. She’ll make Sera feel safe enough to fall asleep.)

The Bog Unicorn turns its head as Sera passes. Sera is riding a normal horse that’s being kept wherever you keep normal horses. The Bog Unicorn spooks ‘em. So the undead horse with a sword in its head gets tied up near the Inquisitor. (Sera isn’t sleeping in Adder’s tent, but she pitched her tent as close to Adder’s as she could. If Adder needs help in the middle of the night, Sera’s there for her.) The Bog Unicorn doesn’t have eyelids.

You know what else doesn’t have eyelids? Demon _nothing_s. Now Sera knows that. She hates that she knows that.

The desert wind whistles over the Western Approach crags, kicking up little dust devils. The Inquisitor’s marching back to Skyhold with her army and the Grey Wardens, so there’s lots of fires lighting up the night. Good to see all those fires, all that life.

But Sera hates that so many people are dreaming. _Wake up, you idiots!_ she wants to scream at them. _I know what it’s like in the Fade—what it’s really like—and you don’t want it in your head! _

She listens in on the nearest guards, but they’re not talking about anything interesting. Merrin’s sister had a baby girl. Bully for Merrin’s sister.

A hyena laughs in the distance. Sera goes back to her tent, grabs her bow and quiver, and sets off to find herself a hyena. All Adder wears is shades of black, brown and grey. She might like a hyena-skin robe or whatever.

And it’ll feel good to kill something.

* * *

Turns out fighting hyenas is a lot easier with Bull and his giant axe blocking them before they reach you, or Varric’s traps tripping them up, or even Vivi’s ice walls.

Sera is running as fast as she can with the muscle of her left thigh shredded. She killed the bugger that ripped it open—left a dagger in that fucker’s eye—but there’s three more left. Paws pound closer on baked-dry ground. She keeps feeling hot puffs of air on her legs that might be hyena breath or might be desert wind.

_Why didn’t I pack fire arrows? It’s too dark to aim good with regular ones!_

Her stumbling run back to camp takes her past a jutting outcrop, which blocks the moonlight. She plunges into darkness.

Nothing in the dark. Nothing. To Adder, those nightmare beasties looked like spiders. To Sera, they were _nothing_s.

Sera’s done so much. She’s tried so hard. Every asshole she heard of, she put an arrow through—or just kicked around and robbed if they were bad but not too bad. Hasn’t gotten everyone, but it’s insane to think she could.

Did they become those_ nothing_s that she saw in the Fade? Did her friends that’ve died? Will she, once she’s dead? There’s supposed to be Andraste and the Maker, but what if there’s not?

Just darkness.

Tears spring to her eyes. She misses a step, stumbles, and hits the ground hard. Her hands and knee throb. She can’t catch her breath.

There’s hot wind on her face. But it stinks of dead things, she it can’t be desert wind, can it? Sera’s aching hand fumbles for the pouch at her belt. Did she even pack knockout powder?

Suddenly, the hyena on her yelps and whirls around before it collapses, blood gargling as it tries to breathe.

Cole’s there, its daggers glowing red and evil. The other two hyenas see it and scarper. It keeps one dagger out, so the glowing runes give some light.

“Here,” it says, passing her a healing potion that she gulps down. Her mangled leg knits itself together.

She wipes the tears from her eyes. “Woke you up but not the guards on watch? You followin’ me?”

“I can sense pain. And I don’t sleep.”

“Eugh. Why do I ever ask you questions?” She’d thank Cole if it were a normal bloke, but it’s not, so she turns away from it.

“You’re scared,” Cole says.

It means about the Fade, of course, but it can fuck right off. “Am not. You’re the one that’s scared!” She gets to her feet and storms back to camp.

“The Nothing won’t win unless you let it.”

Sera slaps her hands over her ears. “LA LA LA LA LA NOT BLOODY LISTENING LA LA LA YOU STUPID FREAK!” Bet it would’ve loved the Fade.

She sings that mean, stupid song to it all the way back to camp. The worst part is that Cole doesn’t seem to mind.

* * *

The next morning, Adder beckons her inner circle over to an open map of the Western Approach. “We’re near the Forbidden Oasis. Anybody want a dip?”

The Qunari gulps down a mouthful of black tea. One time, Adder forgot her tea mug in Sera’s room, and Sera held it to her lips for a while. (That’s not weird. They’re lovers now. Nothing’s weird when you’re lovers.) She knows Adder likes her tea bitter as vinegar.

Sera rolls her eyes. “By ‘dip’ you mean ‘dip our hands into the ground while we collection a billion bloody shards to open a weirdy door to get weirdy powers,’ yeah?”

“Well, sure. But first, swimming! I have sand in places that should never have sand.”

Sera smiles, buts suddenly, she thinks: Shards. The magic door in the desert. Is Adder just in love with stupid magic doors?

When she ran around the Fade, she was cuddling up with glowing orange spirits, touching mirrors that gave her more strength or cleverness or speed, and fixing crazy machines. They had to kill so many things because she just couldn’t pass up a scrap of paper or stop reading gravestones. Why does the Fade even have gravestones?

Adder’s not even a mage. She’s a dagger-wielding rogue. (And she loves poisons. Two daggers and poisons equals an adder, which, so she says, became her name. Sera doesn’t know Adder’s old one, just like she doesn’t know why Adder clearly cut her horns off at some point, leaving jagged horn-nubbies. No need to go poking around in ancient history.) Does she have to care so much about magic?

Adder is chatting with Varric, because of course Varric had some smart remark, when Sera says, “Right, have fun, do what you feel. I’m going back to Skyhold.”

Adder looks surprised and, maybe, a little disappointed. “Oh. All right.”

Blackwall, Cole and Solas are happy to go with Adder to the Hidden Oasis. Sera thought Beardy would want to stick with the Wardens, but he seems happy to ignore them. She’s seen a few of chinwagging with him, and he always ducks out of those chats right quick. Weirdy.

The rest of the inner circle starts mounting up, but Adder gestures for Sera to hang back. Seems like she’s relaxed a bit. The stupid frigging pissing Fade gave her exactly what she wanted, didn’t it? Divine Justinia wasn’t really Divine Justinia (which kind of stings a bit, honestly), just some spirit. And Adder learned she’s not special or touched by Andraste, which is fine by her. She’s always told people she thought she was just saved on accident.

“You’re sure you don’t want to join me?” Adder asks. “I was thinking I might send the others on a wild shard chase and you and I could have a _private_ swim….”

The dark grey of Adder’s skin is even darker on her face and head. She’s probably regular dark grey beneath her clothes. Sera imagines licking and nibbling her tan-line and blushes.

“Um.” What were they talking about?

“Of course, we might have a kill a few tuskets first to make it totally private,” Adder muses. “I don’t want to hear ‘uuuuuuuuuuuh’” she mimics a tusket’s low groan, “unless it’s you making that noise.”

Sera snorts and giggles. _She’s hilarious and she’s hot. Why am I being so weird again?_ “A bit deep for me. I’m more like a fennec.”

“You laughed like a hyena that time on your floor.”

Did Cole tell her about last night? Sera’s suspicious, but from Adder’s face, she doesn’t mean anything special by that comment. “’Cuz your ladybits farted.” She giggles again at the memory.

Adder holds her hand. She always keeps covered up, so it’s just leather touching Sera’s skin, but Sera’s heart beats faster anyway. “I want to make you sound like the entire animal kingdom. C’mon, won’t you join me at the oasis?”

Sera’s tempted, but normal isn’t at something called a Forbidden Oasis, is it? “No. Thanks, though. But no. I just—” What even is there to say? She can’t say anything without sounding stupid. “Nah.”

“Well, if you’re sure.” Adder drops her hand.

So she leaves with her small group. Off to go learn more magic things.

A few hours later, Varric pulls his horse up beside hers. “How are things, Buttercup?”

“Chapped, sweaty, thirsty. Ugh, can’t wait ‘til we get back to Skyhold.”

He chuckles. “Same here.” He’s tuning up Bianca as he talks. These days, when Varric fires her, she gets glowy from all the runes that’re on her. (Sera kinda hates that she thinks of Bianca as a she, too. She doesn’t like anything getting in her head.) “Buy you a drink at the nearest tavern?”

“Shite, thanks, mate.” She pauses. “Wait, why?”

“Well, where I’m from, friends buy each other drinks on occasion.”

A night of no sleep and Creepy rescuing her has made her sensitive. “Do I look like I need a drink?”

“You _have_ been staring in the same direction the Inquisitor rode off to for a few hours.”

“Haven’t.” But Sera’s blushing. “So I like her arse, so what? Not a big secret, that. It’s just—” She stops herself from saying more. She and Adder are too new.

“You know, not everything is going to be in my book.”

“Your book? What, you’re writing about the Inquisition?”

“I’m so glad we’re having this conversation. It shows me how little you listen to me when I talk.”

Oh, yeah, now she remembers he’s mentioned it before. “Am I in it?”

“Everyone is—or, archetypal versions of everyone, anyway.”

“You use words like archetribble and wonder why I don’t listen when you talk? You’re daft.”

“The point is, I can keep a secret if there’s anything you want to talk about.”

Sera shrugs. “Nothin’ to talk about, is there? We just need to get someplace with a tavern and normal people and then things’ll be good.” It’s so easy to feel small here, like nothing you do could ever matter. With people and cities come distractions: gossip to overhear, pranks to pull, things to steal, that sort of shite.

“All right, Buttercup.” But he looks at her all worried. She must look like shite, the way everyone looks at her.

* * *

Sera wants things normal, so she can play.

Sera also wants to know about Andraste, why she chose a Qunari as Her Herald, if She’s coming back and bringing Her husband with her—the kind of shite you get to learn when the world’s gone mad and there’s a hole in the sky.

Those two things never pulled against each other before.

Only, after the Fade, they do. She just wanted to know about Andraste, thanks. Not the rest of this weird shite.

There’s a Red Jenny heist that needs coordinating. A Brother travelling through small towns around Val Firmin is claiming Andraste’s Herald blessed him and now he can heal people. He’s happy to heal rich or poor as long as he gets a donation. Examples of past donations: all the coins a family had, all the booze an inn carried, a night with a family’s pretty daughter. The cure’s rubbish, of course. By the time locals get wise, he’s off to the next small town. After his first few cons, he now travels with a gang of mercs “to avoid the dangers of the road.” Jennies time.

But there’s still too much Adder-less time to fill, especially since she’s trying not to sleep. Sera gets her bow out and trains a bit. She sneaks a spider onto the breakfast tray of one of Josie’s noble guests after she complained how “rustic” Skyhold was. Then she sneaks a chicken in her wardrobe so she walks around with shit on her fancy shoes. Josie gives Sera a talking-to, of course, but Sera plays dumb.

She keeps her eyes and ears open around Skyhold. Two of the soldiers in the fifth regiment have stopped talking to each other because of a gambling debt. Nekara, a dwarven messenger, has this huge crush on Cullen, but he hasn’t noticed her yet.

Late at night, when no one else is around, she visits the chapel. She lights candles—one for Stroud, always. Did he die? Or is he lost in the Fade? Will he come stumbling out one day having plucked out his eyes, like something from a story? _Please let him be dead there or alive somewhere else_, she prays.

As the days wear on, Sera finds herself getting snappier, and it’s harder and harder to focus.

A week and change after they arrive at Skyhold, Sera walks past Dorian and Vivienne sipping wine in the garden. She figures they’re insulting each other. The usual.

Only, this time, they’re not.

“You've walked into the Fade, Dorian, as did your Tevinter forebears,” Vivienne says.

“With somewhat less cataclysmic results.”

“No observations beyond that?”

He sips his wine. “Only that I'm pleased we got out. Demons don't appreciate a man with good hair.”

Sera whirls and snarls, “Fuck off, the pair of you!” at them.

Dorian sets his glass down. “Dare I ask for an explanation, or will that just provoke more swearing?” Voice sleek as ever, but eyes scanning hers for some hint about why she’s acting like this.

Vivienne sniffs the air and pulls a face. “Have you forgotten that bathing exists, my dear?”

If everyone just shut up, if nobody talked about it, then it would go away and Sera would never have to think about it again.

“You—you—” Frig, can’t she get herself under control?

“Sera,” Dorian says quietly. After a moment, he stands, nodding his head to the rotunda. They’ll go inside, and it’ll be more sodding words that don’t matter.

She spins away with frustrated growl.

There’s got to be something she can do. Some place she can run.

_I can leave. I can leave because I don’t care about nothing. Just walk out of here tomorrow. Can’t stop me._

She doesn’t, but the mad thoughts won’t leave her head. She stays awake, knees up at her chest, staring at clouds crossing the moon.

* * *

Sera’s reading a book about Qunari stuff when trumpets blow. The Inquisitor’s come back.

Her stomach sinks. Adder’s probably going to go on and on about magic. Frig, her head hurts. It’s been hurting loads lately, like someone’s taking a pickaxe to her temple.

She snatches something off her shelf. A brass telescope. There’s got to be something she can do.

It’s not long before Adder opens the door.

“Sera, about what happened in the Fade….”

The Fade. The bloody Fade. Creepy wants to talk about it. Varric wants to talk about it. Dorian wants to talk about it. Even Bull is busy beating himself up—literally—because of demons and shite.

And here’s Adder. Talking.

Because she always talks, doesn’t she? Always thinks that helps. When it doesn’t. Where’s the Adder that let her kill that arse Hammond? Was she ever really here, or was that a one-time thing? “Okay, Sera, you get one time to be crazy, but after that, let’s prattle on about everything.”

Sera throws the telescope thingy over Adder’s shoulder. It’s a deliberate miss, but a warning, too.

Sera’s stupid, but she’s not dumb—Adder flinches smaller, just for a moment. Oh, her face doesn’t change, and she says, “Good shot. Why are you angry?” all casual-like, but Sera caught it.

_I’m not the first lover who’s thrown something at her. _

Her hands are shaking. “Shut up and listen, yeah? Never again, you hear me? You trapped in that place. I can’t think about that shite. Frigging not-real nightmares.”

It’s all spilling out. “And you—did you have to stay stuck in the wet of it for so friggin’ long? It’s not enough that you got a magic hand, you need a magic everything? You want to glow all over?”

Adder chuckles, but the skin around her eyes is tight. “Oh no, you caught me. Yes, my secret wish is to glow all over. Setting myself on fire just isn’t enough anymore. I want everyone to know I’m here. I’ve just been feeling so overlooked and unnoticed lately.”

“Ugh, you know what I mean!” Does she have to laugh at everything?

Adder nods a few times, looking thoughtful. “So, seems you’re mad that I spent so much time playing with ghosts and spirits. Do I have that right?”

“It’s not obvious?” Everyone talks about Sera and the Red Jennies like they’re so complicated. They don’t seem that complicated to Sera, but having to explain all the time makes her twitchy. “Here you are, practically strolling along a Fade beach, lookin’ for shells in Fade pools, the Fade-sea wind in your hair. Well, not hair.” Sera gestures to her bald head. “You know.”

Calmly, Adder says, “I was trying to get my bearings and thought the Fade’s loot and magic might help us—and, look! They did. Loot never fails me.”

Greed, at least, Sera can understand. But it hadn’t been just greed driving Adder. “You like learning this weirdy magic stuff. All those books about magic in your chambers, all those mages—even Alexi-Prick—you got researching it…. I was pissing myself scared, and you were having a grand old holiday.”

That takes Adder aback. “You’re right—ever since a magical accident gave me a hand that can open and close rifts, I’ve tried to research magic. I know you don’t like that, but it just makes sense to me and I won’t apologize for it.

“But I can apologize for getting caught up in the Fade and not noticing how badly it was affecting you. I’m sorry. It was hardly a holiday, though. I wanted out of there just as much as you did—I just didn’t want to charge headfirst at a Nightmare Demon who could rip our fears out of our—”

“Stop. Don’t talk about that thing and those…other _nothing_-things.” But Sera can kinda see her side now. She doesn’t agree with it, but they haven’t agreed on much big stuff except bringing on the Grey Wardens.

Adder shines in the small things. Flirting, joking, pranking. And, right now, taking Sera’s hand and nodding at the window seat, asking her if she’d like to sit.

The sunlight bursts bright all over her face and simple brown leathers. The only real colour she has are her eyes, the same colour as fire. Adder should seem out-of-place against the pink seat, the bright cushions, the plants, the random fancy crap Sera nicked or bought. Instead, she looks perfect.

What else do you do when someone’s perfect? You follow. They sit beside each other, holding hands.

It was just a month ago they’d sat across from each other and Sera asked if she’d want to be lovers. Now they sit side by side. Much better.

“Nothing-things?” Adder asks softly.

She must be tired if she keeps talking about weirdy crap. “I saw nothing. Nothing. They were…like little empty_ things_. Like, there’s nothing in the dark. No point.” She snorts. “Stupid, right? That shouldn’t be scary, like…like it was. I’d have taken spiders.”

She squeezes Adder’s hand. “Like you! You’re scared of spiders? All of ‘em? Even little ones?”

“It’s really only the enormous, dangerous ones. When I was five, my parents and I made camp in a forest near Hasmal. Mom and Dad thought they’d scouted the area well enough before setting up, but they missed a giant spider’s egg sack. And, wouldn’t you know it? Those eggs hatched in the middle of the night. And newborn giant spiders are _starving._

“They’re only the size of small dogs. My parents weren’t warriors, and I think that’s the only reason they managed to fight them off. But imagine being five years old and waking up to a huge eight-eyed face right above you! And that’s even before the bastard tried to poison me.”

Sera shudders. “Ewww! Frig!” Suddenly, she stares right above Adder’s head and widens her eyes. “Er, good thing you’re only scared of the big ones, then….”

With a yelp, Adder leaps off the window seat, whirling around to stare at a spider-less patch of empty air.

Sera bursts into giggles. “Too good to pass up, that was!”

“Brat!” Adder huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. “Okay…maybe I’m a _bit _scared of the small ones.”

“I’m not, so you got yourself a spider-smusher when you need it. Anytime.”

“Hm, really? Well, then I think I need one in my chambers.”

“What? You just got into Skyhold a moment ago. You ain’t been up there yet.”

Adder shakes her head, smiling. “That was an invitation for you to fuck me in my chambers, Sera.”

“Wait, really? Shite, why didn’t you start with that?” They leave her room in the Herald’s Rest, holding hands.

Dorian’s chatting with Bull in the courtyard while the Chargers train. That’s new. _Wait…they’re not together, are they? That’s daft. I’m just feeling mushy and seeing mush everywhere. _They’re probably insulting each other.

Seeing Dorian makes her think of his conversation with Vivienne earlier that week.

“The Fade’s stupid to think about,” Sera comments. “Everybody going on about imaginary stuff when real people died. Probably. Stroud, yeah? Lost a real mustache, there. And in return, a busted-up group of Wardens. And they’re always weird.

“Usually, bad stuff happens first, so you’re glad when the hero shows up. But Wardens are the wrong way ‘round. They’re the good thing that means the bad thing is about to happen.” She frowns. “Like in Denerim, when the Blight ended.”

Adder squeezes her hand as they mount the stairs to the Great Hall. “A lot happened in Denerim. What do you remember?”

“People talked a lot about this one Warden. There was a big fight, and they died, or, I don’t know, maybe they didn’t?”

“Kallian Tabris, the Hero of Ferelden? You forget the Hero of Ferelden? Who’s still alive, by the way.”

“That was ages ago. Ten years. I was playing with small painted boxes and burying stuff I stole.” They’re in the Great Hall now, which is bustling with people. Some nobles, some messengers going by, and some blokes carrying huge boxes heading for the Undercroft. “I remember more people cringing about magic than Blight. Wardens were an excuse for your stuff to go missing.

“Blackwall’s nice, though. Not like the Adamant ones. Need more like him.”

“He’s been pretty broody about what we saw at Adamant. I need to go check on him after—shit, Josephine’s got her business face on.” Sure enough, there’s Josie, with her clipboard, hurrying through the hall toward them.

“Catch me,” Sera says, then grabs Adder’s shoulders and pulls herself off the ground.

Adder stumbles a little, but wraps her arms beneath Sera’s arse just as Sera wraps her legs around her hips.

They kiss in front of everyone, as they should. It’s a hard press of lips becoming a tangle of tongues and spit. Sera can’t help but squirm a little. Can they be in private now?

Adder pulls away, pupils wide and lips puffy. They pant into each other’s faces for a sec before Sera glances over at Josie. She’s proper stunned. Sera gives her a cheery wave and Adder mouths ‘later’ to her.

Sera yanks Adder’s scarf off as Adder unlocks the door to her chambers, opens it, and kicks the door closed. She sits on the stairs as Sera whips her top off.

They kiss again, wet and hungry, scrambling to get more clothes off. Sera unwraps her legs from Adder’s waist, kneeling on the step with her lover between her.

Adder raises her leg to Sera’s lady bits and—

Frig, yeah.

Eventually, pants come off (no underpants for Sera), and fingers get involved. (Sera licks along Adder’s tan-line, which is as hot as she thought it would be.) Sera tries to get Adder loud enough that they can hear her in the Great Hall, but Adder is quiet and dainty this time.

She has to bite her lower lip so hard she leaves toothmarks, though. That’s something.

And Sera’s loud enough for both of them, anyway. She comes with a shudder and a swear-filled shout. Adder’s fingers coax every bit of pleasure her clit can give until it starts to get a bit achey.

“Fuck,” Sera mutters weakly.

Adder drops her hand from Sera’s cunny, which clenches sadly at the lack of her thick, callused fingers.

“Now we know the spider isn’t on the stairs,” Adder murmurs breathlessly.

“Huh?”

“Nothing.”

Sera yawns, suddenly aware of how tired she is. Adder slides out from underneath her, and as Sera starts to stand, she scoops her up and carries her up the stairs.

“You’ve got a lot of friends here,” Adder comments. “I got stopped three times in between the gate and the Herald’s Rest by people who are concerned about you.”

“I’m fine.” Sera should probably stand up when she says that, but she doesn’t. It’s nice, being carried.

“Right.” They’re in Adder’s chambers, heading for the bed. “That’s why you don’t want to go a second round.”

“Sometimes I don’t.” She yawns again. “You don’t know me.”

Adder turns down the covers, sets Sera gently on the bed, and tucks her in. “Not yet. But I want to.”

Because she can, Sera sits up. “Oh, you think I’m gonna—” she yawns heavily, “—fall asleep right now? You think you’re so good you…you tucker me out? Sod off, bitch.”

But then Adder crawls in next to her, and it’s hard to keep arguing. Sera flops down, head against the pillow, to rest her eyes for a moment.

* * *

There’s hyena’s coming after her. They’re chasing her across a green-lit landscape, with the ruined Black City hovering near. She trips on wet stone stairs, slamming into a giant bird statue. The bronze bird squawks then flies away.

There’s spiders swarming over a little child—a child with grey skin and teary orange eyes.

“Addie!” Sera screams. But the hyenas are on her.

Cole watches, its daggers glowing a vile red, but it doesn’t help her this time.

And they’re not hyenas anymore: they’re _nothing_s. They rip off chunks of her flesh and her meat with their eerie, inky fingers.

Child Adder screams. Someone has to help her. But there’s nothing Sera can do—never was—and she’s so scared—

Sera jerks awake, heart pounding. Outside, the stars are out. She must’ve slept a while.

“Mmf,” Adder grunts, blinking.

Sera whips the covers off and leaps out of bed. _I wanted to know. I just didn’t want to know _this._ I’m so stupid. _

“What do you need?” Adder asks, rubbing sleep-crusties from her eyes.

She laughs, but nothing’s funny. “Oh, a kiss on the forehead and some mint tea. What kind of bloody question is that, Addie? There’s…there’s nothing—” She shudders, crossing her arms over her chest and rubbing her arms. “How…how do things go back to normal?”

Adder smiles. That’s her first reaction to everything, it seems. But this smile doesn’t reach her eyes. “If I knew that, I’d be doing it.”

She gets out of bed, talking, but Sera’s too busy admiring how fit she is to pay attention.

Sera comes back to Adder saying, “—can’t promise you things will go back to normal any time soon. We’ll have to figure out how to make things as normal as we can inside all this madness. And I can promise you we’ll figure out how together.”

Adder glances away. “If you want to figure it out with someone who, unfortunately, seems to be a craziness magnet.”

Sera’s tempted. That _would _make things easier. And they got on well before they started shagging, didn’t they? They can learn to get on well without shagging again.

Weirdly, Sera’s next thought is Adder in the Hinterlands, getting a wedding ring back for a poor widowed wife. A whole world to save, and she still took time for that.

Sera’s insides turn into a big swamp of mushiness. _She’s hot and hilarious and kind. Time to stop being draft. _

“What, and leave these tits? Nah.” Sera bounds over to Adder and kisses first one tit, then the other.

Adder kisses the top of her head, chuckling. “Am I just a piece of meat to you?”

“Not just—you got skin, too.” A thought skips into her head. “Wanna go for a walk? Let’s see what’s out there. Gotta be something. And if not…well, time together looking at the stars.” 

Adder goes to the stairs to grab their clothes. “Why do I feel like looking at the stars with you will somehow involve two explosions, an international incident, and a cream pie?”

Sera comes with, grabbing Adder’s hand. “I’m just special like that. Could do the pie thing, though. I got some friends in the kitchens.”

So what if Sera’s scared? There’s a hole in the sky, an ancient baddie out there trying to end the world, and demons everywhere. Everyone’s scared.

But holding Adder’s hand matters, too. Time to remember that.

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was: "The Inquisitor comforts her girlfriend Sera after they enter the Fade at Adamant."


End file.
